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Beekeeping: what ate my honey? #889903

Asked November 16, 2024, 8:37 AM EST

Hello, I have been a beekeeper in Leelanau County for five years. One of my hives had an ant problem this summer. I put cinnamon on the corners of the hive cover. When I went to harvest the honey in October, all the honey in the super above the queen excluder had been eaten out and tiny eggs laid. There were tiny bites in the wax as if they ate through capped honey, ate the honey and left tiny white eggs. Could ants have done this? See pictures. All the bees were dead or gone. No evidence of what insect did this.

Leelanau County Michigan

Expert Response

Thank you for reaching out and for including a photo. In Michigan, ants are not a pest or threat to healthy honey bee colonies. It's common for ants to use the hive as shelter, but they wouldn't take much honey from a strong colony.

I suspect the honey in your hive was robbed out by other honey bees. Robbing in Michigan is most common in the fall. Colonies that are weak in population, sick, or not queenright can be more vulnerable to robbing. A colony can also be vulnerable to robbing if it is left open for several minutes during an inspection (allowing other honey bees to find exposed honey) during a nectar dearth. For more information on robbing, see this blog post: https://beeinformed.org/2020/01/15/what-robbing-looks-like/.

I suspect that the "eggs" you are seeing are bits of beeswax, honey crystals, or eggs from a pest like wax moths or small hive beetles.

Thanks again for reaching out.

Ana HeckApiculture Extension EducatorMichigan State University Extension Replied November 18, 2024, 9:25 AM EST

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